This invention relates to a vehicle air spring axle suspension system and, more particularly, to new and improved means for connecting an axle housing to a trailing arm.
Almost every type of vehicle has incorporated into its design a suspension system. The purpose of this suspension system is to reduce the level of transmitted load, shock and vibrations realized by the contents or passengers of the vehicle when it encounters rough terrain during its movement. Among such systems are coil springs, leaf springs, and pneumatic systems which employ the so called "air spring". The air spring basic components consist of an axle system (including tires and such), an air spring (loosely a sealed rubber bag) and its associated hardware, an air link beam or trailing arm pivotally connecting the axle to the vehicle frame and all of the nuts and bolts, brackets etc. that hold all of the pieces together.
The air spring market is highly competitive with the result that all manufacturers are looking for ways of reducing both weight and cost of the air suspension system. Thus, designers of air suspension systems have already gone through the exercise of minimizing the size of virtually every component while maintaining an acceptable safety factor.
One typical air suspension system is shown in Schwartz, U.S. Pat. No. 4,162,090, issued Jul. 24, 1997. This shows a vehicle axle suspension assembly that includes a locator plate that is welded to the axle housing and also heat shrunk onto the trailing arm. However, this arrangement still requires U-bolts that extend around the axle for securely clamping the axle to the trailing arm.
Another form of connection between a trailing arm and axle is shown in Carlson et al., U.S. Pat. No. 3,630,541, issued Dec. 28, 1971. In this design the trailing arm has axle stop members to prevent relative movement between the trailing arm and the axle. However, once again U-bolts are used for securely clamping the axle to the trailing arm.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a suspension assembly which is lighter and requires even fewer components than those described in the prior art.